Pop up Rules – Priya Parker

During the ATD 2023 in San Diego in May, I was fortunate to listen to one of the keynote speakers Priya Parker, author of the book “The art of gathering”. One of my main take-aways from her was using “Pop up Rules” when gathering. Every meeting, training, event, festivity is a gathering where we can introduce Pop up Rules to support achieving the goal of the gathering. What are Pop up Rules you ask? Well, they are temporary, alternative and explicit rules, to design a shift in behavior. Participants agree to have a shared set of norms for their gathering. An example she gave was a new members orientation event where there was only one rule and that was that you were not allowed to get a drink for yourself. A great way to get people to mingle, talk and engage.

Working as a consultant and trainer, each workshop or training is different and there is not 1 default set of Pop up Rules. This knowledge challenges me to consider each training as a separate event and define the right Pop Up rules to design a shift in behavior needed for that specific event or training, meeting or workshop.